South Africa sealed the 3-match home Test series against Pakistan with one match to spare as they defeated the visitors in the 2nd Test in Cape Town by a nine-wicket margin. A collective bowling effort restricted Pakistan to 177 despite a fighting 56 from Sarfraz Ahmed in the first innings. Faf du Plessis century and the fifties from Aiden Markram (78), Temba Bavuma (75) and Quinton de Kock (59) helped South Africa take a lead of 254 by scoring 431 in their first innings.

After conceding a big lead, Pakistan tried to counter-attack as Asad Shafiq (88), Babar Azam (72) and Shan Masood (61) scored fifties at a brisk pace. However, other batsmen got out for single-digit scores and Pakistan were bowled out for 294 at end of the 3rd day. South Africa resumed on the 4th day to chase the 41-run target which they did it for the loss of Markram and at the cost of Hashim Amla retiring hurt.

All the major stats and numbers recorded during the second Test match in Cape Town:

Faf’s record ton:

1 – Faf du Plessis became the first captain in the history of Test cricket to score a century in the very next game after bagging a pair. Faf was dismissed for ducks in both innings of the Boxing Day Test.

5 – Number of centuries for Faf du Plessis as South African captain in Test cricket; the joint second most Test tons as captain for South Africa. Graeme Smith has as many as 25 Test tons to his name as captain of South Africa while Jackie McGlew also has five Test hundred as South Africa captain.

Another record for Steyn:

253 – Dale Steyn became the leading wicket-taker for South Africa in Test cricket in the first Test and now is the leading wicket-taker in Test cricket on South African soil. He went past Makhaya Ntini’s tally of 249 wickets in SA. He is also only the 9th player and the 4th pacer with over 250 Test wickets at home.

Four-wicket hauls galore:

8 – This game between South Africa and Pakistan is the 176th in Test history to witness as many as five four-wicket hauls but only 8th among those without any of them being converted into a five-wicket haul.

8 – South Africa’s first innings is only the 8th instance in Test cricket where two left-arm pacers bagged a 4-wicket haul each. The duo of Shaheen Afridi and Mohammad Amir bagged four-wicket hauls in South Africa’s first innings of the first Test match.

The previous three of eight instances have been recorded by Pakistan as Amir bagged a four-fer along with Wahab Riaz in the first innings of the 2016 Brisbane Test against Australia. India and Australia bowlers recorded two such instances while Sri Lanka had another one.

9 – Only the 9th time three or more bowlers bagged four-wicket hauls in a home Test match for South Africa. Four of those nine instances have been recorded at Cape Town only.

More numbers from the game:

51 – Vernon Philander became the 4th player to bag 50 and more wickets in Test cricket at the Newlands in Cape Town. He needed only 10 Test matches for those 50 wickets. Dale Steyn leads this list with 74 wickets from 15 Tests at this venue.

2008 – Last instance when South Africa won consecutive Test matches while chasing a target was during the 2008/09 Test series against Australia in Australia.